Boys basketball: Why are Sheldon, Capital Christian and Jesuit ranked in The Bee’s top 5?
Monterey Trail and Rocklin held on to the top spots in The Bee’s Top 20 high school boys basketball rankings. The upstarts sported a combined 22-0 record entering Wednesday and may be headed to a collision course in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoffs.
What about No. 3 Sheldon, No. 4 Capital Christian and No. 5 Jesuit?
These tradition-rich programs are a combined 12-10, so how can they possibly be ranked so high? Is mediocrity being rewarded here?
Well, no.
The Bee’s rankings are not won-loss standings. Strength of schedule matters, and these programs have played a lot of out-of-area competition, some of it out of state.
Sheldon is ranked seventh in Northern California by NorCalPreps, having just competed in a national tournament in Idaho last week, and entered into the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas this week.
The Huskies (5-5) and longtime coach Joey Rollings have not played any Sacramento-area teams this season and won’t until they host Jesuit on Jan. 3 in a Delta League opener. Sheldon is led by guards Jaden Spears and Jaden Woodard.
Capital Christian (3-2) and coach Michael Lorente has two out-of-area setbacks and a 75-72 overtime win over No. 10 Folsom. The Cougars have been led in scoring by guard Jaylen Valdez and forward Myles Wiggins.
Jesuit (4-3) entered the week having played just two section teams, defeating Oak Ridge 67-53 and falling to St. Mary’s of Stockton 63-56. Jesuit plays Granite Bay on Wednesday. Coach Tim Kelly’s team is led by guards Kevin Haupt and Ahjani Lewis and 6-8 shooting forward Cole Epperson.
Golden surge: No. 7 Del Oro defended its Les Curry Invitational championship at Davis High, beating the host Blue Devils 70-65 in the finals on Saturday.
Multi-sport star Caden Pinnick, a crafty and experienced senior guard, earned MVP honors. Del Oro teammates Alex Kime and Jake Williams earned all-tournament honors for coach Geoff Broyles. Pinnick this week eclipsed the 1,000-point scoring milestone.
Del Oro (9-2) handed No. 6 Franklin its lone loss, 70-64, and the Golden Eagles also own a 58-55 win over No. 15 Grant and a 70-64 victory over No. 14 Christian Brothers. Del Oro’s lone local loss was 67-53 to No. 12 Placer on Dec. 12. There could be a rematch in next week’s 81st Kendall Arnett Tournament at Placer, though it would have to be in the finals. Placer topped Del Oro in the Arnett championship last season.
Placer is 13-1, falling only to No. 11 Oak Ridge, 62-40, on Dec. 8.
DC scorer: Del Campo forward Javi Sindhu eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his Cougars career.
The 6-6 senior leads the Cougars with a 17.9-point average and also leads in rebounds with 8.1 per game heading into nonleague games this week against Union Mine, Woodcreek and Del Oro, each of them ranked by The Bee.
Sindhu led Del Campo last season in averaging 20.6 points per game.
Rocklin scorer: Rocklin junior center Mark Lavrenov scored his 1,000th career point, doing so with inside play, jumpers and thunder dunks for the Thunder. Coach Steve Taylor has been high on the 6-foot-8 big man since his freshman season, calling him “a throwback with skills.”
Stan Harms Classic: No. 10 Folsom is the host school for the 37th Stan Harms Classic that runs Thursday through Saturday and includes No. 13 Cosumnes Oaks opening against St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo and No. 16 Ponderosa taking on El Dorado.
Folsom plays McClatchy in the 7 p.m. game on Thursday.
The event is named after Harms, the classy coach who led Folsom to the 1985 CIF state Division III championship. Harms was a fixture at regional games and a fan of Folsom and 500-game winning coach Mike Wall to the end. He died in 2020 at the age of 83.
UM uprising: Union Mine of El Dorado entered the week at 11-1 and jumps into The Bee’s rankings at No. 20.
The Division IV section-title contending Diamondbacks beat Bradshaw Christian 61-40 on Saturday to take the Argonaut Tournament championship.
Nate Sweet, a 6-2 senior guard and team captain, went for 40 points in a 71-65 semifinal win over West Campus, while 6-3 sophomore forward Isaac Zmerzlikar muscled and hustled his way to 17 rebounds. He had 18 points and 13 rebounds against Bradshaw Christian. Ethan Gines is averaging 10.7 assists and Zmerzlikar 13.4 rebounds.
Sweet is scoring 24.4 points per game while averaging 6.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists for coach Ryan Williams, whose team went 25-7 last season when Sweet averaged 8.8 points. He has come of age.
Franklin on fire: Franklin of the Elk Grove Unified School District is 10-1, equaling last season’s victory total.
Ninth-year coach Ken Manfredi saw his team beat section teams St. Mary’s (57-48), Antelope (47-46), Ponderosa (44-24), Granite Bay (63-52), Vista del Lago (80-48), Kennedy (66-46) and Oak Ridge (71-58).
Aidan Rollins, a 6-3 guard, is already generating scholarship interest. The Delta League race includes Sheldon and Jesuit.
Kennedy crunch: Kennedy was a powerhouse in the 1980s and 1990s and into the 2000s, often placed at or near the top of The Bee’s rankings under coaches Spider Thomas, Ron McKenna and Robert Fong.
Now a fourth-year coaching alum in Jerist Roberts has the Cougars in the hunt and off to a 9-4. The schedule includes winning the Mira Loma Invitational on Saturday by handing Cosumnes Oaks its first loss (64-57) in a semifinal and then topping the host school, 66-49.
Aharon Young had 16 points, Dondre Prothro 12 and Noah Hayes 10 in the final. Kennedy has already exceeded its win total of the past two seasons. Prothro is averaging 11.6 points, Young 10.0, Lawrence 8.2 and Taylor Shirley 7.5. Shirley and Durrell Gooding lead the team in rebounding, averaging 6.1 per game.
The Metro League race will include defending tri-champions Monterey Trail, Laguna Creek and Grant along with Burbank, McClatchy, River City and now Kennedy.
Falcons fly: Christian Brothers is 9-5 under fourth-year coach Jermain Brown, had a six-game winning steak, beat Ponderosa and Wood of Vacaville at the Les Curry Invitational and lost tough games to Monterey Trail, Rocklin and Del Oro.
Shawn Underwood leads CB in scoring (14.7 points per game), rebounding (6.2) and assists (3.6). CB will compete for the Capital Athletic League championship, a race that will include Capital Christian, Sacramento and Rio Americano.
Around NorCal: Salesian High of Richmond in Contra Costa County is the top-ranked team in Northern California, according to Cal-Hi Sports and NorCalPreps. The Pride are off to a 10-0 start.
De La Salle of Concord is ranked second and is 9-0. No Sacramento-area teams are ranked in the Cal-Hi state Top 25, though Monterey Trail and Rocklin are on the bubble.
The Bee’s Top 20
Basketball
Records entering Wednesday
1. Monterey Trail (8-0)
2. Rocklin (14-0)
3. Sheldon (5-5)
4. Capital Christian (3-2)
5. Jesuit (4-3)
6. Franklin (10-1)
7. Del Oro (9-4)
8. Inderkum (5-3)
9. Sacramento (7-3)
10. Folsom (4-4)
11. Oak Ridge (7-3)
12. Placer (13-1)
13. Cosumnes Oaks (9-2)
14. Laguna Creek (6-2)
15. Christian Brothers (9-5)
16. Woodcreek (8-3)
17. Grant (3-4)
18. Ponderosa (4-4)
19. Whitney (7-6)
T20. Kennedy (9-4)
T20. Union Mine (12-1)
Bubble: Antelope (5-5), Burbank (7-3), Casa Roble (6-3), Colfax (8-1), Granite Bay (4-6), Nevada Union (10-4), Rio Americano (5-4), Roseville (7-3), Sutter (6-5), Twelve Bridges (9-3), Vacaville (5-4), Vista del Lago (5-7), West Park (8-5), Whitney (6-6).